


Fight To Keep Him

by MidnightCitizen



Category: The Last of Us
Genre: I love one father -daughter duo, Post-Canon, these two are killing me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 05:26:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17739857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidnightCitizen/pseuds/MidnightCitizen
Summary: Joel never told her what happened.Ellie wanted answers.





	Fight To Keep Him

**Author's Note:**

> May contain spoilers if you haven't finished the game!

  It was another dreary day in town. The rain outside loudly tapped against the metal roof and soaked everything outside. Ellie used to love days like this back in school – but now that she was in the outside world she hated it. To the infected,  it meant constant sounds and something for the Clickers to listen to. But to humans, to hunters, it meant tracks in the mud.

  And being constantly soaked sucked ass.

  Resting her face against the window, she listened to Joel beside her talk to his brother. Since they had returned to Tommy’s town things were different. She suspected that Joel had lied to her and she still had no clue why. He had been silent about the Fireflies and anytime she tried to mention it anymore he shut her down – it was annoying her. She wanted answers.

  She wanted to know why he lied to her.

  She listened to the rain fall against the glass and watched as it streamed down. Things had been simpler when she was at the school. Drills sucked but there was always food – and there was actual beds to sleep on , even if they hurt Ellie’s back if she laid a certain way.

  Here at Tommy’s food was fine and they had electricity. They had decent supplies, and no one was an asshole.

  They were like two different worlds.

  “Joel, get some rest. And you too, Ellie.” Tommy’s voice broke her train of thoughts and she looked over at the brothers again, watching as Tommy headed out the front door of Ellie and Joel’s small home.

  Home…

  “What’s on your mind?”

  Green hues looked to the bearded-man, Ellie’s thoughts wanting to say so much.   
   Wanted to demand answers from her guardian.   
   Wanted to cry and hit his chest for even lying to her --- but she shook her head, eyes returning to the scene outside. The bustle of the small town was slow on rainy days like this. Everyone was in their warm homes.

  “Nothing, Joel. Just tired.”

  “We both know that’s not true.”

  She hated this tone. This was that dad tone he always got with her. It felt so weird and wrong sometimes for him to use it on her – his words of the past echoing in her head.

_I’m not your dad._

  Even thinking about that made her want to cry. She had never realized how much he did feel like a dad until he told her that and he hated the fact he was right.   
He wasn’t her dad.

  She knew nothing of her dad and she never asked Marlene for information. Ellie had been so concerned with learning about her mother that she didn’t ask about the other part of her – the side created by her father.

  “I’m fine, Joel.” She snapped, trying to get out of the crappy thoughts that were trying to take over again. She needed an escape and she felt horrible to even snap at him like this…

  “Fine… fine. I’ll be making dinner.”

  “Cool.”

  She listened closely, hearing the creak of the chair he was sitting in as he stood up and moved to the kitchen. Her hitched breath released, closing her eyes and trying to fight the tears. Why couldn’t things just be simple again?

  Feelings and emotions like this were never an issue while at school. She had Riley , her best friend, to depend on for an escape from the shitty school. But then she left her – fucking left her for the Fireflies and came back just to tell her she was leaving.

  A lot of nights Ellie wished that she just didn’t come back.   
  If she had stayed away she would have been alive.  

  And … Ellie wouldn’t have been bit and thrown onto Joel and Tess to smuggle her out of the city. As much as she loved Joel, she wished things had turned out differently.

  Riley would have been alive.   
   Tess would have been alive.   
   Sam and Henry would have been alive.

  She had their blood on her hands and she could never get them off. Blood was hard to get off when it was caked on and that’s what it felt like when she thought back to them.   
   Scrubbing, scrubbing, and scrubbing to no prevail.

  They still haunted her dreams.

  “Ellie.”

  The girl locked eyes with Joel who had moved silently over in front of her. He was kneeling in front of her seat and the worry in his eyes made Ellie feel like shit. She hated to see that look …

  He cared about her too much.   
   And he had almost died because of her , too.

  “Come here, baby girl.”

  He gently pulled her close to him and she didn’t complain, even when she was on the edge of the seat and being smothered. He felt like home.     
  A soft sob left her and she put her arms around his neck. It felt like they sat there for hours, him holding her close and rubbing her back, her with her arms locked around his neck and trying not to cry anymore.

  Joel felt like an escape from the world and from herself. She could drop all her walls around him and he made her feel safe.

  For once she felt like things would be okay when she was with him. He knew what to do in any situation and he loved her.

  He loved her and she hadn’t felt this sort of thing before.

  While Marlene was asked to take care of her, she never made herself known. She had no idea of her existence until she was 13 – that was far too late. She was alone in the world until she met Riley. She felt like a sister and the only person she could lose herself with.

  Then it was Joel.   
   Joel was the only other person to make her feel at home.

  “Honey?”

  “I’m okay, Joel. Just… fucking hate my brain.”

  “I get that. Thoughts can be a horrible thing. But … there are people here. I’m here for you, kid. I always will be.”

  She shook her head against his shoulder – grateful that he didn’t feel the movement. Ellie knew she would eventually lose him, too. Everyone else left her.

  Eventually, Joel would join the people who left her. She would be alone again.

  “Ellie?”

  “Yeah, Joel?”

  “Tomorrow Tommy’s sending out some guys to go on a search for more supplies. They’ve gone through a few nearby towns to find food but there’s some other places they haven’t touched. They say there’s a music shop. I told them to look out for a guitar if they can.”

  To anyone that’d be simple. But a guitar would mean that he’d finally get to sing for her. And she would get to learn how to play guitar. She couldn’t help herself – she smiled, Joel gently using his thumb to get the tears from under her eyes.

  “Mr.Singer himself can finally show me what he’s got.”

  “Oh, well, I’m rusty. I just hope it comes back easily.”

  "I’m sure it will, Joel. You’re like a magic man.”

  “Oh, I am, am I?”

  “Hell yeah!”

  Joel laughed and her chest felt better – even with the fear of losing him just like everyone else she at least knew that they had time. She would make sure of it.

  The world wasn’t going to take her Joel away.

  She would fight to keep him. 


End file.
